August and September

It seemed like with the rain and the cooler temperatures, summer had ended in August. And while all the rain made lawns green and flowers grow, it also hurt some vegetable growth while making the mushrooms in the lawn and mulch multiply. Now it is September and summer seems to have returned with some beautiful weather.

We had two raffle sales in front of Heath’s in August and have one in September on the 16th. Stop by, sell hello, and purchase your chance to will $5,000 at the beginning of December. We will have one more outside sale date in October and then towards the end of that month, we will start mailing out tickets. Your last chance to purchase the winning ticket will be at the Holiday Fair at MCS on December 2 before the 1 pm drawing.

BINGO: We had four Tuesday night Bingo games in August and plan to have four more in September. It is a good chance to meet neighbors and new friends, have some fun, and win some money.

SUTHERLAND PARK; We’re almost at the end of the flowering season in the top portion of Sutherland Park (next to the Fire/Safety Building) — the rain kept everything blooming well. Come and enjoy sitting there for a while — maybe with a cup of coffee or a snack. Towards the end of the month it will be time for club members to clean out and weed … and do a little autumn decorating.

Two Lions, Mark and Sarah, did a tremendous job of picking up trash along Route 25 in Center Harbor on the 21st. We wouldn’t have as many bags if some motorists didn’t throw cans, coffee cups, and many strange things out their car windows. Let’s all do our part to keep all roadsides free of trash.

July 2023

This is the start of the new Lion year. During the old year (2022-23) two of our caring and active members passed away: Lloyd Connery and Marilyn Indelicato. We are saddened by our loss and that of their families and friends.

We are trying to learn more about the previous lives of our members during dinner meetings — this is a fun and informative time of sharing which we hope to continue.

We also hope to entice new members who wish to serve their community, become part of a like-minded organization, and contribute new ideas. Some of our newest members are starting to organize a pickleball tournament in the next month or two.

There were plenty of Moultonborough Lions to serve the Fourth of July parade marchers and viewers. We cooked hot dogs and hamburgers, served three kinds of salads and chips, and had water, lemonade, and watermelon available.

The attendance at Bingo has been slowly increasing (which means so is the amount of money you can win) as our summer residents learn how much fun it is.

The roadside clean-up along Route 25 in Center Harbor was delayed until Monday, July 31 because of poison ivy along the road and wet conditions from the frequent July rain.

MAY AND JUNE 2023

The weather got unseasonably hot, followed by temperatures in the 50’s and rain and clouds. However, our typical activities continued, as many were indoors. We have welcomed back most of the “snow birds” and are looking forward to seeing them at activities, meetings, and dinner. We would also like to have potential new members come to a meeting or ask a Club member what we do and why one should join a service organization.

Camp Pride: The long anticipated bathroom renovation of our adopted bunkhouse is due to be completed the middle of June. Sally and Dawn painted doors and trim in May and several members will be hanging the curtains, cleaning the windows, floors, and mattresses (doing the spring cleaning) towards the end of June.

White Cane Day Collecting for the Blind: On May 23, five Lions and four Boy Scouts and one Cub Scout, collected $1,250. We couldn’t have done it without the help of the Scouts (and as soon as I have a photo, I will post it here). And we thank all of the area residents and visitors who donated money.

Sutherland Park: The Moultonborough Lions have once again adopted the upper section of Sutherland Park to keep beautiful, weed-free, and watered. The Lions special ordered the American Chestnut tree (which was resistant to Chestnut Blight) the first year the Club sponsored the garden. And we are happy to report that this year, the tree is looking healthy and blooming.

Scholarships: The Club awarded $10,000 in scholarships and a $500 Book Scholarship, honoring Joe and Pat Keegan for all their service to the Club and the Community. They were announced at ceremonies in the three schools where students from the communities we serve will be graduating. From Inter-Lakes:  Egan Towle and Sara Harris.  From Kingswood:  David McWhirter and Abigail Fournier (who received the Keegan scholarship); and from Moultonborough Academy:  Elise Steward, Abigail Bryant and Olivia Tatro (pictured below with Mike and Kate Lancor who presented the scholarships at the Scholarship Night).

Dinner Meetings (the third Monday of the month): At May’s dinner meeting we learned more about each jindividual Lion’s early life which was a lot of fun as we don’t often get to know one another outside of service activities. June’s dinner meeting we will hear from Master Beekeeper, Athena. Hoping to post a photo here after the dinner on the 19th of June. Sounds like a most interesting topic!

Lion of the Year: Marilyn Indelicato was a most deserving recipient of our Club’s Lion of the Year Award. Marilyn joined the club in September of 2019 and has been one of our most active members — in the last two years alone, she put in almost 340 service hours. Many will have seen her just about every Tuesday night working at Bingo (selling sheets or working behind the scene. She was active at the state level and involved herself in so many of our service activities from Camp Pride to selling raffle tickets and helping with the mailings. Marilyn epitomizes the heart, soul, and energy of a Lion.

Books to Schools: On June 6, Lions Peter and Kathy Allen distributed books to each of the 102 students at Tuftonboro Central School.

Coming up: Fourth of July barbecue and raffle sales in front of Heath’s.

APRIL 2023

The month of April has been both warmer, colder, and wetter than it typically has and not all of our Club “snowbirds” have returned. But we continue to be active with the members who are here.

On Friday, April 21, Mark Cotrupi worked with two groups of students who are members of the Moultonborough Academy National Honor Society to clean up along the roads in Sandwich, NH.

We had four night of Bingo this month and the number of participants is slowly increasing. And we appreciate those regular players who show up week after week, month after month.

Three members were at the Meet the Candidates Night on April 16 to help and serve coffee to a “packed house”. Only two people wanted coffee and we may need to rethink that now that the evening is no longer in February.

The speaker at our dinner meeting was Jim Nute of The Mayhew Program who treated us to an informative presentation and slide show of the Mayhew experience for all the boys and young men it serves — more that 2,300 have gone through the summer and year-round programing tuition free since it opened. We were proud to donate money to help with this worthwhile and helping organization.

March 2023

The snow is starting to melt as in the ice on all the lakes and activities are beginning to pick up. By the end of next month most of our “snowbirds” will have returned from warmer climates and we will be able to be more activie.

BOOKS IN THE SCHOOLS: On March 10, three Moultonborough Lions went to Moultonborough Central School and Sandwich Central School to distribute a book to each child in both schools. 223 books were given out at MSC and 92 in Sandwich. As always it is such a pleasure to see the joy in the student’s eyes as they IMMEDIATELY open the books to start reading — or, in the case of the older students, read the recap of the book on the fly leaf or back cover.

\

The kindergarten students were so excited about their books, that four of them got paper cuts and went to see the nurse.

VISION SCREENING: On March 15, Mark screened 30 students at Russell Elementary School in Rumney.

We had to cancel Bingo once for snow and we had our last meeting via zoom. Starting April 3 we will be meeting in person for the business meeting and the dinner meeting will be April 17. Our speaker will be Jim Nute from Camp Mayhew.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023

I forgot to mention that in December, Mark with assistance from the Inter-Lakes Elementary School nurse and some parents, screened 170 students. Nine students were referred to check in with their eye doctors. Vision screening is so important to catch any vision problems as early as possible. And with this screener we can screen students as young as three months old. Before children may even know that they are having difficulty seeing, difficulties in six major areas can be detected. In January, the Club screened 144 students at Plymouth Elementary school.

Because many of our members choose to escape the snow during the winter months, we have been having our business and board meetings via Zoom. But BINGO is still happening every Tuesday, with ticket sales starting at 4:30 and the games beginning at 6:30. I went a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to be a winner — you could, too.

We seemed to get most of our winter snow in one week in January, then had a bitter cold weekend with record low temperatures being set at the top of Mount Washington and pond hockey players not able to skate on Lake Winnipesaukee, but did manage to play on Lake Waukewan in frostbite conditions. And the Ice Fishing Derby went ahead, despite some open areas and areas of weak ice, without all the usual houses and vehicles on the Lake.

We are always looking to have new people who want to serve their community check the Moultonborough Lions Club out — no matter what the weather. Check out these web pages and see if you would like to attend a meeting or talk with a present member.

DECEMBER 2022

The raffle is over and the winning ticket was drawn at one pm at the Moultonborough Central School Holiday Fair by Tess, an elementary student.

The winner of the $5,000 prize was John K. from Candia, NH. We met him and presented him with a check at our December dinner meeting.

Eight Moultonborough Lions personalized around 275 Christmas cards to be distributed to the nursing home residents of Golden View, Forest View, and Mountain View.

All month we are collecting children’s scarves, mittens, gloves, and hats which will then be distributed for use by children who have forgotten, lost, or don’t have these items.

We gave checks to organizations in the four towns we service (Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich, and Tuftonboro) to help with Christmas presents, clothes, or whatever needs each town has at this time of year. The total amount of the checks was $2,500.

One of the Lion platforms is childhood cancer. This month we selected $500 worth items on CHAD’s wish list for its patients. The items were ordered on the Playopolis site and delivered directly to them at Dartmouth Hitchcock.

Our dinner meeting is set for December 19 and will be our last dinner meeting until April. With iffy weather and many of our members moving to warmer climes for the winter, we decided to just do one meeting — our business and board meeting for January, February, and March.

Lions ring the bell for the Salvation Army. Three Lions and four friends collected $1,030.80 to donate. They have been doing this for years, and this year it is wonderful how much was collected in six hours on one day!

November 2022

The weather decided to get more fall-like and got us thinking about the holidays ahead.

On Monday, the 7th we did our before-the-snow-comes roadside clean up along the Center Harbor section of Route 25 and picked up 27 bags of trash. Fortunately, the morning we did this was one of the last warm days.

At the business meeting we voted to purchase $500 of items on the CHad wish list. We ordered sensory items, mainly for infants and toddlers which were on the list provided by Playopolis. The children should be receiving them soon.

Two members were given honors during both the October dinner meeting and the November business meeting:

Melvin Jones Fellowship (the highest award in Lionism) to Sally Sibulkin

and the Lion of the Year Award to Karen Baron

At our dinner meeting, we were very pleased to have Scout Master Ben Fullerton and three Boy Scouts from the troop we sponsor. They spoke about how Covid affected scouting and how the Cub Scouts now has girls as members. We also learned that our Scout troop has members from all the areas our club services. We are hoping to see some more Eagle Scouts in the next coupe of years.

Our major fundraiser, the raffle for a $5,000 prize is drawing to a close. Lions have put in well over 100 hours folding letters, stamping envelopes, stapling tickets, and putting on postage for ALMOST 6,000 letters. We had to have two different dates for assembling all the parts and the last batch went out on November 14. If you haven’t received your tickets in the mail yet, come to the Moultonborough Central School Holiday Fair on Saturday, December 3 to purchase them either outside the school or inside. The winning tickets will be selected at 1pm!

September 2022

Bingo numbers were up during this month and we continue to keep up the upper section of Sutherland Park (although due to quite a bit of rain this month we didn’t have to water quite as often.

We took in almost $700 in raffle sales in front of E.M. Heath’s on Saturday, September 17 and are thankful to all the people who purchased them. Good luck to all who will have tickets by the end of November on winning that $5,000 prize.

At our dinner meeting, our speaker was Deb Hoadley, Director of the Moultonborough Public Library. She was both enthusiastic and informative telling us about all the activities hosted by the library and all the opportunities there are for us to learn, craft, discuss, and enjoy.

We also celebrated the 90th birthdays of two of our very active Lion Club members, John and Joe.

OCTOBER 2022

As the leaves begin to change color and the turkeys and squirrels make it difficult to navigate the road, the Moultonborough Lions have an active schedule of events.

We will be doing several school vision screenings this month (we did Moultonborough Academy, grades 6-12, on September 17 and screened 199 students and staff). So far we have been to Gilmanton (and screened 174 students), Sandwich (and screened (64 students), and Holderness (screened 142 students) for the individual student scan for five different vision problems. If a student shows a visual irregularity, he/she is given (or mailed by the school nurse) a paper with the results to take to an eye doctor. We will be in Gilford on the 28th of the month.

We also provided free vision screening at the Sandwich Fair on October 8, 9, and 10 from 10 am to 4 pm. Our white shed is located against the fence opposite the road with all the food venders and on the way to the rides. You can’t miss us. Stop on by; it takes less than a minute to have yourself or any member of your family screened.

We will have one more live sale date of raffle tickets in front of EM Heaths on Saturday, October 8 from 9:30 – 2:30. Stop on by on your way to or from the Fair. At the end of the month, we will be mailing out a letter and tickets to people who have not had a chance to purchase them earlier. The last chance to buy tickets for the $5,000 prize will be at the Holiday Fair at the Moultonborough Central School on Saturday, December 4 before the 1:00 drawing of the winner.

And thanks to two members, our adopted spot, Sutherland Park, is all set for the season.